You can’t make this shit up. More evidence of how religion rots people’s brains. These people and their chruch/cult leaders should go to jail for murder. We are talking about the killing of a very young child. She gets no justice, and the family gets to do this again to another poor child when these batshit crazy people decide the next child is possesed by a spirit. Fucking nuts!!!! Family who lay on top of two-year-old girl until she suffocated to death in four hour exorcism are let off with fines

Parents and relatives who suffocated a two-year-old child to death by lying on top of her for hours in an exorcism ritual have been spared jail and received only fines.

Amid chants in a darkened room, two-year-old Chua Wan Zuen was pinned down under a blanket by eight people – two of whom were not charged – in a bizarre attempt to crush out the evil spirits they said had consumed her.

The child was held down by the group for what doctors believed were several tortuous hours, but they told police they did not intend to kill her.

The family of Chua Wan Zuen told Malaysian police they had not intended to kill the toddler during the ritual. They were spared jail and fined after admitting their guilt (file photo)

A Malaysian court sitting in northern Penang state, fined the parents, an uncle, an aunt and grandmother 10,000 ringgit (£2,000) each after they pleaded guilty to causing Chua’s death by negligence.

The child’s 21-year-old cousin was fined 5,000 ringgit while another cousin, aged 16, was released on probation.

When the seven family members had originally appeared in court they pleaded not guilty.

But as their trial proceeded they admitted they committed the offence at their home in the northern town of Bukit Mertajam.

An Indonesian maid, who police said had joined the seven others in the ritual, was not charged because she agreed to testify against the ethnic Chinese family.

The family members could have been sent to jail for up to 10 years – but if they fail to pay the fines they could still end up behind bars for up to seven months, The Star newspaper reported.

Forensic doctor Zahari Noorsaid told how the presence of blood in Chua’s respiratory system indicated she was still breathing when she was pinned down.

He said it was possible she was pressed down to the floor, as there were injuries on the right side of her face as well as on her hands legs, body, neck and lips.

The family killed the two-year-old at their home in Bukit Mertajam, in northern Penang province (file photo)

Police revealed earlier that the family had carried out the exorcism ritual because they believed she was possessed by evil spirits.

When officers raided the house after receiving a distress call from a family member, they found eight people lying on top of the girl in a darkened bedroom, said district police chief Azman Abdul Lah.

She was face down under the human pile and chanting could be heard.

Belief in the supernatural is entrenched among Malaysia’s Malay, Chinese and ethnic communities, although occult rituals have waned in recent years.

In 2010 two Malay cousins were sentenced to 10 years in jail for killing the parents of one of them during a spiritual cleansing ritual.

They had killed the parents by trying to beat evil out of them by hitting them with brooms and motor cycle helmets.

NEWPORT, Tenn. — A judge in Tennessee changed a 7-month-old boy’s name to Martin from Messiah, saying the religious name was earned by one person and “that one person is Jesus Christ.”

Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered the name change last week, according to WBIR-TV (http://on.wbir.com/1cDOeTY). The boy’s parents were in court because they could not agree on the child’s last name, but when the judge heard the boy’s first name, she ordered it changed, too.

“It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is,” Ballew said.

It was the first time she ordered a first name change, the judge said.

Messiah was No. 4 among the fastest-rising baby names in 2012, according to the Social Security Administration’s annual list of popular baby names.

The judge in eastern Tennessee said the baby was to be named Martin DeShawn McCullough, which includes both parents’ last name.

The boy’s mother, Jaleesa Martin, of Newport, said she will appeal. She says Messiah is unique and she liked how it sounded alongside the boy’s two siblings – Micah and Mason.

“Everybody believes what they want so I think I should be able to name my child what I want to name him, not someone else,” Martin said.

Ballew said the name Messiah could cause problems if the child grows up in Cocke County, which has a large Christian population.

“The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” the judge said.